Open Source Guitar Remixes at Freesound (MP3s)

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Someday, the “Remix! tree” section of the freesound.org site will get a proper upgrade, one that will organize the ever-growing number of original sound recordings and subsequent versions thereof into something manageable, understandable, more easily consumable.

In the meanwhile, one watches the open-source, community-produced list grow in length, and one searches for recent updates — new versions of old sounds.

Among the more recent is a series of renditions of a guitar sound, the initial (the fount, the source) rustic in its resonance (by Freesound member Benboncan), the subsequent two experiments in audio manipulation (by Freesound member Timbre) slowing then speeding, in various manners, to its creator’s imagination:

[audio:http://media.freesound.org/data/82/previews/82684__Benboncan__Steel_Body_Guitar_Tuning_3_preview.mp3|titles=”Steel Body Guitar Tuning 3″|artists=Benboncan]

[audio:http://media.freesound.org/data/85/previews/85649__Timbre__Steel_guitar_pitch_shfted_48KHz_preview.mp3|titles=”Steel guitar (pitch shfted) 48KHz”|artists=Timbre]

[audio:http://media.freesound.org/data/85/previews/85650__Timbre__Steel_guitar_pitch_shfted_reverbed_compressed_48KHz_preview.mp3|titles=”Steel guitar (pitch-shfted_reverbed_compressed) 48KHz”|artists=Timbre]

More on the files as follows: original (freesound.org), take one (freesound.org), take two (freesound.org).

Biosphere Live in the Netherlands (MP3)

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Last September, ambient artist Geir Jennsen holed up in a small church in Den Haag, Netherlands, for a solo show. Better known as Biosphere, the name under which he has recorded and performed since the early 1990s, Jennsen filled the church with thick, slow-moving layers of synthesized moans. And given the context of the church, one cannot help but associate those moans with that of an organ.

Jennsen’s performance was recorded and made available by Touch Radio as part of its excellent podcast series. As heard in the high-quality MP3, the synthetic organ is a deeply felt, glacial device, holding notes for what feels like minutes on end, to the extent that minor disruptions in the sound suggest dramatic changes.

The set is almost 40 minutes long, and it rotates through a variety of levels of density, a times intimate in its aural detail, at times absolutely enormous in its scope. There are instances, as well, when recordings of piano are altered as part of the sonic palette.

[audio:http://www.touchmusic.org.uk/touchradio/Radio48/denhaag.mp3|titles=”Live at Todaysart 2009″|artists=Biosphere]

More on the release at at touchradio.org.uk. More on Biosphere at biosphere.no. More on the festival at todaysart.nl — including details on the next event, this coming September.

Free Jazz Played with TVs Turned to Dead Channels (MP3s)

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

The murky and atmospheric noise-jazz of Leandro Ramirez‘s album jaja sh represents the dark side of fusion. His loosely strung instruments play rough, sour chords and single-note riffs in a manner that traces its mode back to that of Ornette Coleman, the great jazz saxophonist. Even though there’s no saxophone heard here, there’s something in the way Ramirez’s melodies seem to move backwards, as if feeling their way up a creaky staircase, that brings to mind Coleman’s more outward-bound experimentation.

At times, especially on the album’s fourth and final track, this sounds like free jazz being played with televisions turned to dead channels (MP3). It’s a crab-walk approach, in which notes seem at cross purposes: the tonalities are familiar, even song-like, but they’re heard as if broken up and presented as a puzzle, a puzzle in which the pieces are mildewed, and expected to be put together in dim light.

There’s also the way casual gestures result in unusual textures, which in turn come to serve a rhythmic role in the music — this aspect is less Coleman’s manner than that of guitarist Bern Nix, sideman on Coleman’s superb Body Meta album. It’s especially apparent on jaja sh‘s first track (MP3).

All of this is filtered through a sensibility that is occasionally languorous, as on the second track (MP3), and often deeply chaotic, if blunted and charismatically meandering, as on the third (MP3).

[audio:http://www.biodata.microbiorecords.net/b_25/celebrante%20-%20jaja%20sh%201.mp3|titles=”jaja sh 1″|artists=Leandro Ramirez] [audio:http://www.biodata.microbiorecords.net/b_25/celebrante%20-%20jaja%20sh%202.mp3|titles=”jaja sh 2″|artists=Leandro Ramirez] [audio:http://www.biodata.microbiorecords.net/b_25/celebrante%20-%20jaja%20sh%203.mp3|titles=”jaja sh 3″|artists=Leandro Ramirez] [audio:http://www.biodata.microbiorecords.net/b_25/celebrante%20-%20jaja%20sh%204.mp3|titles=”jaja sh 4″|artists=Leandro Ramirez]

Full release at biodata.microbiorecords.net.

The Spoils of the Beat Battle

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Been awhile since the last check-in at the ongoing Beat Battles series hosted by stonesthrow.com, the popular message board of its namesake record label.

The latest, number 151, like all previous Beat Battles, involves tossing up a beat-friendly sample and seeing which battler can push it further along.

As always, among the entries you’ll find both rudimentary cut’n’paste, and some inspired executions — and also as always, once you’ve listened to a handful of the mixes (at least 38 files were uploaded to the arena, at drop.io/battle151), you won’t listen to the original the same way again.

This time around, the source material is a tinny bit of rhythmic simplicity, though it has just enough different segments — old-school beats, Casio-quality congas, some vocoded chanting — to allow for numerous mixing outcomes.

The original is available as a download, but not for streaming, at mediafire.com. Among the highlights of the contest are those by bit1 (MP3), who provides a slo-mo version, all laconic hand claps, buzzy atmospherics, and a riff that suits the downtempo approach, and insDrumental (MP3), who judging by the sheer internal-combustion complexity of the outcome may have put more effort into his entry than a good number of his competitors combined.

The winner, chosen demo-cratically by votes on a separate message thread (at stonesthrow.com), was mplssoul, who worked in au courant sped-up vocals and a stuttery beat (MP3).

[audio:http://stlth.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/production/b3d20600-e4bd-012c-27b7-fd5ecdd47c47/43b19260-e50d-012c-aacd-f7583da1d649/bit1%20-%20Way%20Out.mp3?Signature=pdMIOAY%2BqICbUbafC5%2Bhb5OseZ0%3D&Expires=1264384433&AWSAccessKeyId=1DHMN2J6JW2RM0N4PC82|titles=”Way Out”|artists=bit1] [audio:http://stlth.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/production/b3d20600-e4bd-012c-27b7-fd5ecdd47c47/8dc718f0-e7e2-012c-47b6-f85af4b26eb3/insDrumental%20-%20STBB%20151.mp3?Signature=FFuMPmL4on0hmiy4xia%2Bxgce06I%3D&Expires=1264384974&AWSAccessKeyId=1DHMN2J6JW2RM0N4PC82|titles=”STBB 151″|artists=insDrumental] [audio:http://stlth.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/production/b3d20600-e4bd-012c-27b7-fd5ecdd47c47/98e99100-e5e5-012c-59f4-f0071c95fa06/mplssoul-myEscape.mp3?Signature=3Wb21QH8OEOcucpX%2BF7PfdnpX1E%3D&Expires=1264384769&AWSAccessKeyId=1DHMN2J6JW2RM0N4PC82|titles=”myEscape”|artists=mplssoul]

The direct links and streaming above may not function properly, but either way, be sure to spend some time at the drop.io/battle151 site, where the entries reside. The service continues to up its game, now allowing for Zip downloading of a given folder. Also give a read to the comments that trail each entry, evidence of the supportive community of producers that has built up around the Stones Throw Beat Battle.

And on to battle 152 …

Melody vs. Drone (MP3)

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

The melody that makes itself heard occasionally in “Potential Ride” by Mark Rushton certainly doesn’t sound tense. The effect resembles the opening theme music of The X-Files, a wavering single-note riff whose playful childlike manner serves as a kind of musical interrogative, an aural “what if?” And that’s about as threatening as it gets.

But there is tension in “Potential Ride,” considerable tension, and it has nothing to do with television reference points and everything to do with the space between that melody and the background drone in which it is heard. Rushton himself hinted at this when he mentioned (at markrushton.com), while posting the track last December, that it’s “more melodic than you normally hear out of me.”

What he was getting at was how just the slightest bit of melody can bring music permanently into the foreground, and that permanence is at odds with the background potential of ambient music, which by most definitions should be able to function as both background and foreground listening.

Rushton deals with this by pacing the melodic segments with a certain amount of hesitance, and allowing the drone to consume much of the listening experience. The result is one in which the melody is doubly subsumed, both in the hazy drone, and in time.

More on Rushton at markrushton.com.